Permission Based Email Marketing
Permission based email marketing has proven to be one of the most effective marketing strategies for small and medium-sized businesses. Recent studies and polls have shown that most merchants who conduct email marketing campaigns consider this method of reaching prospects and customers highly-profitable.
The correct way to conduct an email marketing campaign is implied in the name of the strategy: permission based. Without a prospect’s permission, sending an unsolicited email will often be perceived as spam. Once you have a prospect’s permission to communicate with him through email, it is important that you follow the following tips to maximize the effectiveness of your email promotional campaigns.
Most people agree to receive email only after considering what they have to gain (or lose) from giving their email address away. As a business owner, merchant, or affiliate marketer, you should focus on building a relationship with those who give you permission to contact them through email. Those who “opt-in” want to like you. They want to trust you. Trust is only gained by treating them like real personalities rather than merely a list of email addresses.
Permission based email marketing is not spam, because you will only send emails to those customers and prospects that give you permission to send communications to. Sending spam can ruin your organization’s reputation and brand value regardless of your company’s size, scope, or current image. Compared to spamming, permission-based email marketing is more effective, less intrusive and is received by prospects easier. People can opt-in through a form on your web page, in personal meetings where they add their name, email address and check a “consent” box, or over the phone when it’s possible to record proof of the conversation. There are two forms of opt-in mailings, single opt-in and double opt-in.
When writing your emails, always focus on building the relationship that you have with the people on your subscriber list. Speak to them individually (even though you are writing to everyone at once) and you will gain their trust, respect and attention.
Every permission based email marketing campaign should allow the subscriber (i.e. the person who has give you permission to contact them via email) to “opt-out” of your email list. That is, always provide the subscriber the option of ending the relationship.
If you want to be an Internet marketer with an effective opt-in listing, you must treat your leads like human being-complete with emotion, calling them by their first name (you can actually automate that!), and making them know that beyond marketing, you genuinely care about them. This is not something you do to flatter. It will not pan out properly if you are not as sincere in creating a personal touch to your business.
The content of your newsletter must be relevant to what the person has subscribed. Since this is an anticipated marketing form, you will have to meet certain expectations as to the content and its relevance to their particular needs. This is where other marketing strategies fail. In permission based marketing, it already answers the “what’s in it for me?” quality that most customers look for through the relevance of the things they gain from the effective Internet marketer.
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